The Fear of the End
After several months of sailing, Bai Qiuran and Tang Ruowei, carrying the Insect Race, arrived at the lowest point of the Void River.
Upon arriving here, the world is like countless grains of sand, covering every corner within sight, and the Void River has completely transformed into a dazzling ocean, stretching as far as the eye can see.
Bai Qiuran called this place, which was different from the Void River, the Void Sea, and also made some changes to the Void River Realm and the subsequent realm divisions.
After defeating the former Empress and completely controlling the insects with her clone, Tang Ruowei ordered the army to assemble and then issued the first command to them using the launcher.
"The entire assembly will migrate, leaving that Void, and returning to the land further downstream."
According to the Heavenly Dao, the Immortal Realm speculates that these insects were driven from the lower reaches of the Void River to the upper reaches by something far more terrifying, and some of the insects' behavior patterns corroborate this.
However, nothing concrete has yet been discovered in the Immortal Realm to indicate that these insects were indeed driven up from downstream by something else.
So this time, both as a test and to keep the dangerous Insect Race away from the upstream regions ruled by the Immortal Realm, Bai Qiuran and Tang Ruowei had the Empress insect drive the entire Insect Race back downstream.
The Void Sea was vast and boundless. Not to mention Tang Ruowei, even Bai Qiuran could not find any trace to deduce the nests where the Insect Race once lived.
However, the insects had the ability to leave behind special pheromones. After adding the command "return to the ancestral land" to Tang Ruowei, the group of insects led the way on their own, bringing Bai Qiuran and the other person to a certain place in this Void Sea.
However, once they reached this point, the insects refused to move forward, and no matter how Tang Ruowei urged them, they remained unmoved.
On the contrary, after she issued too many orders, doubtful fluctuations were transmitted back from the nearby Imperial Guard Bug and Special Command Individual.
"What should we do, Master? They don't want to leave."
Tang Ruowei then sought help from her master.
"If they keep urging me, I'm afraid they'll impeach my clone and then eat it up."
"Hmm... If they're disobedient, it means they've never been scared before."
Bai Qiuran and said, "Watch me."
He instructed Tang Ruowei to seize the opportune moment to cooperate with him, and then suddenly released his aura into the space.
Sure enough, when Bai Qiuran's aura instantly filled the nearby Void, all the insects became restless, and Tang Ruowei took this opportunity to add an order.
"Flee to our ancestral homeland!"
The low-level Tool Bug weren't very intelligent, and even the special command individuals and Imperial Guard Bug weren't much smarter than Bai Qiuran and Tang Ruowei. So, under the dual stimulation of the aura of their natural enemies and the Empress's command, these insects didn't think twice, gathered together, and fled in a mighty force to a certain place in the Void.
Within the Consciousness Barrier, in the Consciousness Domain, in a world near the periphery.
Yellow sand swirled, storms raged, and the whole world was left in a deathly silence; not even a single seedling buried in the soil could be seen.
This is one of the worlds destroyed in the Consciousness Domain for unknown reasons. In this world, only the remnants of civilization remain, telling future generations about its former glory.
In the area where the Ruin were concentrated, the archaeological team from the Immortal Realm had already occupied it. Under the powerful Mana of the Immortals, the desert was split in two, and the huge city was lifted up intact from the ground and suspended in mid-air for a group of Immortals who were good at deciphering texts and conducting archaeological research to study.
"Slow down, slow down. Go through the Dust-Cleansing Technique again. Be careful not to wipe out your weathered self as well."
Within the expedition team, the leader and head of the archaeological team, the Red Dust Immortal Elder, directed the Immortals to remove the Ruin and gravel from the ruins while organizing the team to prepare for entering the city for investigation.
The cleanup was completed quickly, and the Red Dust Immortal Elder led his team into the Ancient City Ruin examine them.
Like many previous Ruin, this Ruin was quickly identified as being built by the same Lost Civilization. However, what was found in the City was still the ecology and culture of that civilization, and no useful information about a "disaster" or a "great enemy" was found.
The investigation was drawing to a close, and just as the Red Dust Immortal Elder was filled with disappointment, thinking that this time the news of the disaster would be another fruitless effort, one of the Immortals in the investigation team suddenly rushed over, carrying something in his hands.
"Immortal Emperor Mo Chen."
He approached the Red Dust Immortal Elder, and without bothering with formalities, handed over what he was carrying.
Look at this!
The Red Dust Immortal Elder accepted the object handed to him. It was a square cube made of some kind of metal, looking like a Rubik's Cube. There were grooves on the surface of this metal cube, forming several patterns. These patterns converged on the side facing the Red Dust Immortal Elder, forming an eyeball-shaped pattern.
What is this?
The Red Dust Immortal Elder gathered everyone together, and they examined the scene while asking questions out of curiosity.
"Look here, everyone."
The Immortals found the metal cube took it and pressed it onto the eyeball that protruded from the center of the eye's markings.
The eyeball suddenly sank downwards, and then light emanated from within it, forming a curtain of light in mid-air.
The light screen contained many strangely shaped characters, densely packed in the air.
"This should be a recorder of Lost Civilization, just like our Recording Stone."
The Red Dust Immortal Elder and said, "Let's take this out with us. Also, quickly find a translation expert and have him take a look at what's written on it!"
With this unexpected joy, the archaeological team temporarily left the Ruin and returned to the research ship in the Immortal Realm. After a while, someone brought in a translation expert, who turned out to be an acquaintance of the Red Dust Immortal Elder.
"Wisdom Immortal."
Looking at the completely renovated Junior Machine Puppet in front of him, and the green Soulfire in its eye sockets, the Red Dust Immortal Elder remarked, "You're quick on your feet. I remember you were at the Machine God Research Station, helping my grandmaster and senior brothers research the Insect Race Empress, weren't you?"
"Yes, the research is finished."
Wisdom Immortal somewhat wronged.
"Old Bai took his apprentice on a mission, leaving me behind. After much deliberation, I decided to return here to see if there were any new secrets. But as soon as I arrived, someone told me that we had found something incredible. Looks like I'm in luck."
"That's good."
The Red Dust Immortal Elder gathered everyone together and then handed the cube to him and some other code-breaking experts for examination.
Wisdom Immortal and several other experts examined it for a moment, then said, "What's written on this screen should be the operation options. Let me take a look..."
Several experts took turns pointing at the light screen or tracing the texture of the metal cube. Soon, the scene on the screen began to move, and a movie-like image appeared before everyone.
What began was a tremendous explosion and a towering burst of flames, followed by countless panicked shouts in languages they couldn't understand.
Then the camera rises, revealing a golden divine city gradually forming from nothing within the dazzling Consciousness Domain that spans the sky. This must be some kind of technology of this civilization, creating something from nothing through the power of Consciousness.
However, this divine city, comparable to a planet, was only half-formed when it was crushed to dust by a giant hand.
Above the sky, a tall and terrifying figure gradually appeared in the sky. Then, the scene on the light screen went black, and everything returned to silence.